Climate Change, Resource Scarcity, and Cross-Border Conflict: The International Dimensions of Farmer-Herder Violence in West Africa

Farmer–herder violence in West Africa has intensified as climate variability, demographic pressure, and land-use change disrupt long-standing arrangements that once regulated seasonal transhumance and negotiated access to land and water. This paper examines how climate change–induced resource stress interacts with socio-economic and political structures especially land tenure changes, weakening dispute-resolution mechanisms, and uneven governance to heighten competition and increase the likelihood that everyday disputes escalate into violence. It further argues that the conflict is increasingly internationalized: cross-border pastoral mobility and porous frontiers enable local tensions to spill into neighboring states, while uneven implementation of regional mobility frameworks (notably the ECOWAS Transhumance Protocol) complicates accountability and peace building. Drawing on environmental security, conflict ecology, and transnational mobility perspectives, the study treats climate change primarily as a risk multiplier rather than a single direct cause amplifying vulnerabilities by altering rainfall and grazing conditions and reshaping migration routes and timing. The analysis concludes that durable solutions require integrated, conflict-sensitive climate adaptation, inclusive land governance, and stronger cross-border coordination to manage mobility and resource access. Keywords: Climate change, Resource scarcity, Farmer–herder conflict, Cross-border pastoral mobility, ECOWAS Transhumance Protocol